How cool is that?

I picked up some new CDs at the Old Songs Music Festival last weekend, and am finally getting around to dumping them into iTunes. I am delighted to discover that Guy Davis' "Legacy" features comic art by another Guy Davis, from Michigan. The musician's manager located the comic artist on the internet. Likewise another Guy Davis, this one a wine maker in California. As the musician wrote, "Well, folks, my manager and I went nuts. He got us all involved in the making of this CD. No, I didn't get hammered in the studio and play the guitar with my ankles, but I did inaugurate this opus with a fine bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon (I couldn't possibly spell that if I were drunk) from the David Family Vineyards."

Guy Davis, bluesman
Guy Davis, comic artist
Guy Davis, vintner

Color me charmed.

Travel Adventures of the Waiting Kind

New airport (for me). Off-site parking service was excellent. I've been happy with AviStar at other airports, but PreFlight at PVD is several steps better. Excellent instructions, the shuttle picks you up at your car, an easy-to-maneuver parking lot. Nice.

Counter area, bag screening, and (later) passenger security at the Providence airport is badly designed. Remarkably so. I've been in a fair number of airports over the past 4 years. This is the worst.

Flight to Chicago canceled, Flights tomorrow offered. Oh, joy. I'm trying for standby today -- if I make the first standby flight, I'll connect up with my original flight out of Chicago to Calgary. This would be good. I have a fairly good handle on other options, too. None are especially appealing.

Found seat next to electrical outlet in gate area. Good conversations with fellow inconvenienced travelers. Time passes.

Alarms sound. Alarms continue sounding. Voice announces that they're investigating, and will let us know if it's a real emergency. Alarms continue sounding, sounding, and sounding. I unplug cell phone and laptop, half-preparing for a speedy exit. Observation suggests it's probably not a real emergency. A fire truck pulls up on the tarmac. It appears to be in wait-and-assess mode. Police officer walks by. I miss the part in the lobby, where firefighters come in carrying hoses.

Eventually alarms stop. Voice announces:

"All areas of the terminal are designated 'no smoking' areas. Thank you for your cooperation."

Would-be passengers laugh and clap lightly.

More people start arriving. At least some of them have real seats on the flight I'm hoping to board. Others are on standby, like me. Waiting continues, as do the good conversations. I help one standby passenger looking to get to Kansas City check out seat availability on other airlines. He takes flight info and heads back to the main check-in area looking for something with more certainty. I hear of the reporter in the lobby, asking passengers bounced from my canceled flight their opinions about the flight being canceled. From the questions asked, it appears the so-called "mechanical difficulty" may instead be a labor dispute/problem/action.

Followed by the flight not being posted in the gate area, an announced delay...with no information regarding the length of the delay, through checking flight status online suggests it's probably not horrible. Etc. Etc.

And, gee, I haven't even talked about the TSA search of my carry-on bag. It was the most thorough of the dozen or so searches I've had through the years. With the clearest verbal instructions ever. Nice.

As for the rest of it...well, not so nice. Nothing awful. So far. But nothing that makes me sorry I'm not flying as much as I was a few years back, either.

Further updates as there's news. I like the free wireless at the Hartford airport better. The T-mobile day pass isn't so bad, but the way they make me keep logging in every few minutes is tiresome.

Onward.